Steve Lunsford

Blu-ray has officially won out over HD DVD in the next– generation format wars as Wal-Mart, the largest retailer of DVDs in the country has made the decision to discontinue carrying the format once current stock is depleted. (Richel, 2008)
Over the past two years a battle has been fought (as it usually is) for the next generation format for high definition video. Toshiba has produced the HD DVD and Sony developed the Blu-ray format. Both had the backing of several studios and they have competed for retail shelf space. (Richel, 2008)
The announcement from Wal-mart came on Friday,following trends to discontinue carrying new stock of the HD DVD format. Last year Target made the same decision to stop carrying HD DVD in its stores in favor of Blu-ray, opting to deplete it remaining stock through online sales. Best Buy and Netflix are among the others that made the same decision in the past week, assisting to seal HD DVD’s fate (Richel, 2008).
Experts say that based on the amount of influence that Wal-Mart carries, this signals that for Toshiba to continue to market this product would be a futile effort.
The film industry and retailers have worked to quickly resolve the competition of these two formats as quickly as possible. Stocking both formats is non productive for retailers and consumers are tentative to purchase players or disks of either format until industry-wide support is behind one format or the other (Richel, 2008).
On Saturday, a source from Toshiba stated that they have conceded defeat and will not continue to put funds into supporting it’s HD DVD format.(Reuters, 2008)

Sources:
Reuters. (2008, February 16). Toshiba to Give Up on HD DVD, End Format War. New York Times. P. 9

Richel, M. (2008, February 16). Taps for HD DVD as Wal-Mart Backs Blu-ray. New York

Posted by Stephen Lunsford at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo continues to fight the takeover offer of Microsoft from last week, and is getting creative with its options to accomplish this. Few other companies have the capital to buy Yahoo outright, but several have lined up to get the chance to potentially get a piece of the internet company, helping them fend off Microsoft. Among those offering various forms of deals are AOL(owned by Time Warner) and News Corp(FOX). (Kleinman, 2008)
AOL has offered few details in how they a deal would be structured, but anti-trust issues have cropped up as Google owns a small stake in AOL and has a number of advertising agreements in place with them. In the case of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch is offering an 10 Billion dollar asset swap that would give Murdoch a large stake in Yahoo, and provide Yahoo with a piece of News Corp’s MySpace.com site. (Kleinman, 2008)
In any case, Yahoo seems determined to retain its independence from Microsoft and the battle is likely to get increasingly ugly as time passes. (Hansel, 2008)

Sources:
Kleinman, Mark. AOL Clicks with Yahoo to Sideline Microsoft. The Telegraph. February 17, 2007. Retreived February 17 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/02/17/cnaol117.xml.

Hansel, Saul. A Guide to Yahoo’s Unlikely Alternatives to Microsoft. NewYork Times February 13, 2008. pD2.

Posted by Stephen Lunsford at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have recently given thought about what it is that I can give to those of you leaving in the summer, and I thought that I would try to pass it on some knowledge. I hope that this information is useful to all of you. If any of you want to discuss these writings, please speak to me about it or post comments, this is what I have learned and I want you to understand it. This is about the difference between the salesperson and the consultant. It will be the first of many; I hope you find it useful.

Salesperson Vs. Consultant: The High Road to Credibility

Many of you might WANT to be known as consultant, but it is in fact sales, no matter how you may wish for a more glorified title. Many who find themselves in the sales arena look to be known by a title more desirable and less
burdened with stereotypes, but it is a futile effort, everyone will identify you as a threat. The true difference between being a “salesperson” or a “consultant” is in fact, not what you want to call or yourself, or how you want to be perceived, but how you are perceived by others.

First of all, let’s take a look at what these two words mean:

A salesperson promotes the exchange of goods for currency, which sounds like a noble enough pursuit. But in
the professional world, secretaries are charged with rejecting them and C-level executives are stocked with more than enough excuses to fend them off should they make it past the gatekeeper. The best of them range from honest and hardworking individuals to their sleazy, fast-talking, counterparts who give a negative connotation to this position that can be the force that makes a crucial difference in an organization, negative or positive.

A consultant provides their expertise to their client in their particular area, also ultimately resulting in an exchange of money for goods or service. Consultants employ many of the same tactics as the “salesperson” in getting to their first meeting, but they are quickly differentiated by the way their purpose is understood by their clientele. The consultant investigates and evaluates a situation and makes recommendations based on the best interests of the client, abandoning the temptation of personal short-term personal interests.

The difference between the two can be summed up through one word: “PROFESSIONALISM.”

A salesperson will do what must be done to accomplish the objective, to get the order. This often means to the less honorable salesperson that the ultimate goal is to “close the deal” and get paid for the signature that he or she arranged to appear on the order. A salesperson lives in “the now.”

A consultant assesses the situation of a client and compiles a plan to provide the best recommendation for the client to produce a tangible impact. The consultant is patient and far-sighted enough to realize that restraint in the early phases of their dealings with a potential customer builds the trust that will be exponentially beneficial in the long term.

If your aim is to be a professional consultant, here is how one realizes this goal:

• Be genuine, it will show through.
• If you cannot provide a benefit to your client, show your value by acknowledging that fact, and look to future sales, as you already have assessed upcoming opportunity. Waiting to provide a benefit to a client will provide you with unparalleled credibility.
• Maintain every relationship that you can, the work that you put in lies heavily in the credibly that you’ve built. BOTH individuals and organizations don’t forget people that provide value.
• Look everywhere for opportunity. Every organization has multiple time lines where they must make changes. If you know the inner workings of an organization as a person who is not on the payroll, you are guaranteed to be a valued opinion when these changes are implemented.

Show patience, competence, and integrity in your career, you will find out soon enough that the label of “salesperson” will fade and your customers will start to view you as an integral part of their organization, not as a burden.

Posted by Stephen Lunsford at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This entry discusses three essays that provide varying views of leadership. It discusses Gillette’s concepts of Information Renaissance and the challenges that we face as our society rapidly evolves. The second reading deals with the contextual ramifications of the many factors that may affect a person in the role of leader. The final article describes the important role that vision plays in the personality of the “great leader” Finally all of these readings are pulled together to determine the relevance of these theories to each other.

Introduction: Leadership in Changing Times

The topic of leadership is very broad and is covered by many authors with many theories and models that offer insight into this topic. Some are different and some are similar, and the phenomenon of leadership is covered in so many different ways that in most cases, parallels can be drawn. Three essays will be examined in this paper: “Leadership for the Information Renaissance: Clarity, Challenges, Opportunity,” by Jay Gillette, “The Historical and Contemporary Contexts of Leadership: A Contextual Model,” by Thomas Wren and Marc Swatez, and “Visionary Leadership,” by Marshall Sashkin. While all of these essays, at first glance, may seem to be very different in their approaches, all three directly address leadership and how it can have a critical impact on society to have people in these roles in order to withstand the inevitable forces of change.
Leadership for the Information Renaissance

Gillette’s essay discusses the arrival of the information age and draws parallels with the European renaissance of centuries ago. In this time period, drastic change was seen over a relatively short period of time that demanded a major paradigm shift in the way that people lived their day-to-day lives. Gillette describes the both European and Information Renaissance as “paradoxical times, characterized by encouraging positives and distressing negatives." (Gillette, 2006, p. 5) While being in the middle of the information renaissance offers us the chance to witness great advances and life-changing discoveries, such progress is not taken on without the problem of the adjustment to that change. These changes often take the shape of social conflicts with a certain amount of resistance to the problem that is created by any sort of revolution. This manifests itself in the form of denial that the change is happening who choose to ignore its existence. (Gillette, 2006)

Gillette calls upon “renaissance men and women” to spearhead the changes in our society today that trend toward the value of information. Their initiative in adding “knowledge value” to the organizations in which they are involved will provide them with advantages as information and communication become an indispensible part of our society. Gillette also lays out a model that summarizes the way that we move and use information; The information is accessed, filtered, stored, retrieved and used in that order, with no constraints on the timeframe in which any of these steps take place. (Gillette, 2006, pp. 8-13, Table 2)

The Historical and Contemporary Contexts of Leadership

In this essay, Wren and Swatez state that “an understanding of leadership requires careful attention to the contextual aspects of the process.” Throughout the writing, they refer to three major areas of context that determine the variables that may impact the leadership dynamics of any particular situation. These three contexts surround both the leader and the followers to define the dynamics of any situation that makes use of leadership.

The first of these three areas is the historical context of leadership. The historical context deals primarily with the long-term ramifications of the situation that a leader may be presented with and fall into the categories of social, economic and political forces. These forces relate not to the future, but to past happenings that may place limitations on the options that a leader may have on any given situation. Wren and Swatez use the example of the concept of universal health insurance. Since the 1930’s, this issue had been perceived negatively by the powerful American middle-class and thus is still today heavily fought against based on this understanding of the matter. (Wren, 1995, pp. 247-249)

The second area is of contemporary context of leadership. This deals mainly with the social and cultural values that may influence the way that a leader would respond to the demands that are placed upon him. A leader is bound by the norms that the people of a society are accustomed to. The way that a leader may deal with the social and cultural aspects of his post in the United States would not be well received in many other parts of the world; ignoring the role that context plays in the way that his guidance as a leader is accepted can be detrimental. (Wren, 1995, pp. 249-250)

The third and final context of leadership, as defined by Wren and Swatez, is also the one with which most of us are familiar and that is the immediate context. The most obvious impacts on leadership effectiveness are the goals, the context, and the situation that define the more immediate and specific impact on both the leader and the follower. (Wren, 1995, p. 250)

Visionary Leadership

Marshall Sashkin believes that there are three major aspects to visionary leadership: “Creating a Cultural Ideal;” “Implementing the Vision Organizationally;” and “Implementing the Vision through Personal Practices.” Sashkin states that “leaders, who behaved in a task-directed manner, while simultaneously behaving in a relationship-directed manner, were not especially ‘great.’” (Sashkin, 1989, pp. 402-403) Wray & Sashkin believes that there is one characteristic of leaders that plays the pivotal role in “great” leadership: vision.
The first of the three components of a visionary leader, “Visioning,” involves a constant consideration the long term strategy of any initiative of which they are in charge of. For the visionary leader, there are four primary skills: expressing, explaining, extending, and expanding the vision in order to generate the results for the long term goal. The second component is the “Implementing the Vision Organizationally:” leaders guiding and tailoring the culture of the group to accomplish the task that they seek. This can be accomplished through a number of tactics, but must reiterate the vision that the leader has for the organization and provide reason behind goals and policies that might be implemented along the way to the vision. The third component, “Implementing the Vision through Personal Practices,” where Sashkin states that “effective visionary leaders put into practice by means of ones own specific interpersonal behaviors on a one-to-one basis.” (Sashkin, 1989, p. 406) This involves three categories of behavior that focus others on the vision, effectively communicating with followers, and being consistent and trustworthy. (Wren, 1995)

Vision for the Changing World

These three essays discuss three distinct ways that leadership plays a part in change. While at first glance, these ways may have not much in common, one addressing the “new renaissance,” one the “contextual ramifications of leadership,” and one the concept of creating a vision as a leader, there is certainly a common thread that connects these three views. If considered consecutively, it becomes clear that one essay takes over, where the other leads off; it addresses the change in our culture, indicates the impacts that these changes can have on a leader, and identifies a distinctive leadership trait that will guide us through these changes while giving consideration to the context of the history and culture of the “followers.”

With the information renaissance in full swing, new ways of conveying and gathering information are the key to the adjustments that the leader must make to guide his followers down the path to the new ways of communicating information to the other people across society. Should people cling to old norms and standard that have previously governed their behavior; they will find themselves left in the past or in the worst case, obsolete and nonfunctional in a world that has found new, more efficient and productive ways of gathering knowledge and information. Gillette reminds us that “the information renaissance person displays both breadth (of comprehension) and depth (of competence)” (Gillette, 2006, p. 9). These qualities combined are paramount not exclusively to the development of effective leadership, but for the adaptation of any person living in a time of a major paradigm shift. (Gillette, 2006)

The next big question is how does the leader take this “information renaissance” into consideration when leading people through this era? Wren and Swatez provide an answer in in “Historical and Contemporary Contexts of Leadership.” A major change in society causes some consideration for the specific ways that people are led towards adaptation of a new standard in the way that life is lived. The effective leader must take into account the history of the people entering the “Information Age.” A leader who grasps the contextual concept of leadership might ask “How have the followers become used to old standards over the course of their lives, and how will this affect their behavior in adapting to a new way of living?” Other contextual issues might arise in cultural values and traditional behavior which could be problematic should they be ignored. And on the most immediate level, the actual group of people, the interpersonal relations involved, and the culture or the group should be shaped to facilitate that adjustment into a new way of living and valuing knowledge, information, and communication.

The third essay, “Visionary Leadership,” vision, the trait which distinguishes the “great leader” from the “leader” in leading society through the dramatic changes of the information renaissance is defined. The leader possesses a vision for the future of the group that is being led, and plans for years to come, considering long-term benefits and consequences. The visionary leader paints a picture to those who follow that creates a desirable view of the change that he or she has set up the organization’s long term goals to achieve. Finally, but perhaps most importantly, the leader reinforces the change that he is facilitating by simply modeling on a personal level the necessary behavior to achieve the vision that has been set forth. (Sashkin, 1989)

Conclusion: “Making Future From Future”

These three essays address the importance of the idea of revolution and the acknowledgement that we are entering a new era with an emphasis on knowledge and communication of that information. Leaders will step forward in order to make this change happen, and special consideration must be given to the previous way of life in order to ensure a stable transition to the new. The vision of these leaders is what will make the transition work. These “great leaders” will anticipate the coming changes in the future, plan, and guide the general population safely through the information renaissance. Werner Erhard said, “Create your future from your future, not from your past,” a worthy suggestion that, should we neither ignore or embrace ways the past, but should move forward , embracing a vision for coming a constantly changing society. (Vision Quotes, 2007)

Works Cited

Gillette, J. E. (2006, December). Leadership for the Information Renaissance: Clarity, Challenges, Opportunity. Muncie, IN.

Wray, J. Thomas, Swatez, Marc (1995). The Historical and Contemorary Contexts of Leadership: A Contextual Model. The Leader's Companion . New York, New York: The Free Press.

Sashkin, M. (1989). Visionary Leadership. The Perspective from Education . New York, New York: The Westview Press.

Vision Quotes. (2007). Retrieved February 5, 2008, from Leading Thoughts: http://www.leadershipnow.com/visionquotes.html

Posted by Stephen Lunsford at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On February 1st, 2008, Amazon refined its new music service which will provide users with no digital rights management (DRM) constraints. This will allow Amazon to compete with other large online music distributors who currently utilize DRM to restrict the way that purchased music is used by the consumer. Amazon will offer 3.5 million music downloads with it’s new service.
Sony is the final major music label to make music available DRM-free that will work on any computer or portable music player to Amazon. This gives Amazon a substantial boost in competing with ITunes which currently dominates the digital music market. Amazon is now the first and only digital music provider to provide no-DRM music from all four major record labels (Lieberman).
While this is a landmark for Amazon, everything suggests that the other online music vendors are not far behind in following suite by removing DRM from the music downloads offered. Apple has indicated that they would like to remove the DRM from their music, but have not yet managed to obtain the permissions from the record labels. ITunes did attempt to offer non-DRM songs in the second quarter of 2007 for a higher price tag, which proved to be a deterrent to consumers.
Digital music sales is quickly gaining ground on the actual physical sales and is projected to surpass them in 2012. In any case, it seems clear that the days of attempting to restrict the way digital music downloads are used is coming to a close and different sources of revenue such as digital content will have to replace the revenue that is lost to piracy.(Bruno).

Sources:
Bruno, A. (2008, January 26). How Will Digital Revenue Blossom in 2008? Billboard , p. 38.

Lieberman, D. (2008, January 11). Sony BMG Deal Gives Amazon an Advantage. USA Today , p 4b.

Posted by Stephen Lunsford at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Leadership has been a phenomenon that has been studied for centuries, and Lao-Tsu is well known by history as a great philosopher. Lao-tsu had several theories on leadership, and they are examined to determine their applicability to today’s society. There are also the roles of leadership and management, their relation and how these two are both similar and different. After examining both of these issues, we find that the writings of Lao are as relevant as ever in today’s society. In addition, by examining Lao-tzu’s theories we are able to gain further insight into the relation between a leader and a manager and how these two characteristics interact with each other and impact our lives.

Introduction

Lao-tzu pondered upon leadership and compiled several theories from his book Tao Te Ching (The Way and It’s Power) which contains a variety of philosophy about life in general. Lao is known as the “Father of Taoism” and spent his final years pondering the social, philosophical and political elements of life. Tao Te Ching contains several passages about the makings of leaders and how they conduct themselves in achieving effectiveness in their leadership. (Lao Tsu: the Father of Taoism) The theories defined in the writings of Lao on the topic of leadership cover four main areas: selflessness, water, unbiased leadership, and being a midwife as a leader. (Wren, 1995) Each of these sections describes qualities of a leader and how those qualities apply.
When defining the role of a leader, the purpose of a manager is also brought into question. Are the manager and leader the same, and what distinguishes one from the other? The leader and the manager must be contrasted and compared in order to truly define what it means to be a leader. Once this attention is given to these two roles and they are dissected, it becomes clear that there are a multitude of ways that these two differ and a scarcity of ways that they are similar.

Selflessness: a Leader is a Servant

Lao believed that one of the key components of leadership was the ability to rise above one’s own self interest. The leader feels responsibility for the well being of his followers and is willing to ignore the demands of his own wants for the purpose of meeting those needs. Service lies at the heart of leadership. The leader is dedicated to those who dedicate themselves to him, and by doing so, intentionally or not the leader is paid back many times by those to whom he has dedicated himself to.
Lao stated, “Heaven and earth endure because they are not simply selfish but exist on behalf of all creation.”(Wren, 1995) What is meant by this quote is that a leader holds strong and protects the interests of those around him, not for his own sake, but for the well-being of all who follow him.

Water: a Leader Responds to Environment

Lao compared being a leader to water. The leader is responsive to everything around him and does not fight to make the world work around the ideas that he or she might have. These individuals put their self interests as a secondary concern. Water sculpts and changes the face of the earth but does not make these changes over short periods of time. The leader, like water, has the capacity to change the whole world around him but rarely accomplishes this through radical change.

Unbiased Leadership: a Leader Remains Neutral

To define the leader, Lao asked, “Can you mediate emotional issues without taking sides or picking favorites?” (Wren, 1995) Lao believed that it was very important for a leader to stay centralized in areas of conflict that might arise from within a group. A leader cannot openly advocate issues from a position of power without compromising the trust of his followers. He also reinforced the importance of the leaders, putting aside their own personal conflicts, for the greater good of the overall cause, the reason that they lead. Perhaps most importantly, Lao pointed out that it is important that the leader of any cause keep an open mind and a receptive ear to his followers. Should people become aware that their ideas, feelings, and areas of concern are of no concern to the person which they follow, it leads them to question their reasons for following.
Being a Midwife: A Leader Allows his Followers to Accomplish
The true, admirable, leader does not make attempts to control those who follow him. Lao believed that the role of a leader was “facilitating another person’s progress.” (Wren, 1995) The distinction was made that this is not a requirement for a leader, as many leaders are able to acquire followers, but are often corrupt and are not able to achieve very noble or productive goals. The leader may be motivated by the vision which drives him, but this cannot be forced upon those who follow. The approach of allowing others to contribute in order to further the cause, makes those who follow, gain a personal stake in the cause and be rewarded by a sense of participation through their own work in accomplishing something great.

The Traits of a Leader: Vision and Responsibility

In order to understand the leader, the traits and roles of a leader must be further defined; only then can a person’s role as a leader be understood in contrast to that of a manager. Only then can the differences between these two roles be defined.
After a leader finds himself in the position he is in, not out of his own choice, but because he has been identified by his peers and given authority. A leader is inspired and motivated by his cause and seeks to achieve his or her goal through proactive action. Risks are often taken with the vision to achieve the long term goal, and the rewards that are reaped by both the followers and the leaders are potentially great. A leader embraces conflict and by acknowledging this conflict and facing it directly, either overcomes or utilizes what many would perceive as a problem. Those who follow the leader do so out of a number of reasons, but ultimately they do this because they believe in the capabilities and vision of the leader.

The Traits of a Manager: Making it Happen

The role of a manager is proactive. The manager is assigned to his position of authority and is charged with the completion of a particular objective, assigned with the responsibility for a recurring task, or held accountable for maintenance of a situation. Harold Green said, “Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented.” (Cognitive Distortion) A manager is responsible for reacting to problems or situations as they occur and organizing those around him to help achieve that goal. The manager’s followers do so out of obligation or in response to the promise of personal benefit. It is the job of managers to maintain stability in the group of which they are put in charge. Subordinates must respond to the directions given to them by the manager.

Leading versus Managing: Inspiration versus Obligation

When both are clearly defined, it becomes clear that there is but one way that the roles of leader and manager are actually similar, and that is that people follow their directives. The differences between these two roles are easily identified, once the role of each has been examined. The primary difference between the position of leader and manager is most simply understood by the fact that people follow the leader because they are inspired by his vision. Those who follow the manager do so because they are obligated to do so; a very common example would be because they are ordered to do so by an employer.

Each circle can vary in size and location based on the situation which each might be used. The circles might also be larger or smaller based on the individual that the graph might represent. In most situations, the circles are not the same size as the capabilities and personality traits of a leader are not very similar to those of a manager. In some situations and individuals, the circles will overlap where both the different skills are used together to both guide a situation and accomplish a task; one may overshadow the other depending upon the person or circumstances. In situations or people where the circles do not overlap or one of the circles may hardly exist, progress may become stunted should the role of either manager or leader be complemented by a person with the opposite set of skills.
In conclusion, Peter Drucker said, ““Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” (Think Exist) A leader and a manager are two very different roles but have different approaches to achieving their respective vision or assignment. While leaders and managers are different in their roles, they are dependent and complementary to each other in achieving the progress and accomplishment they both desire.

Works Cited

(n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2008, from Think Exist: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/management_is_doing_things_right-leadership_is/11721.html

Cognitive Distortion. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://www.cognitivedistortion.com

Lao Tsu: the Father of Taoism. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2008, from Chebuckto: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/lao.html

Wren, J. T. (1995). Leadership Companion. New York: The Free Press.

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